Don’t Let Other Businesses Sabotage Your Own – a Cautionary Tale
by Greg Milner on 02/06/09 at 7:13 pm
IC member Marnie Kallmeyer - discovered why advertising in glossy magazines can be TOXIC for your business, if you do it the magazine's way instead of our way...
Yet more evidence, if any were needed, that the publishers of magazines are more interested in how advertising looks than how effective it is for the people who pay their bills – the advertisers.
Inner Circle member Marnie Kallmeyer of Beauty Image reports this week the frustrating experience of paying up-front for a full page ad in a bridal magazine. The magazine not only
a) refused to run her strong direct-response ad, they
b) told her there was too much text in it (!!), then
c) provided her with their version – the horrible, useless, space-wasting piece of ‘pretty’ junk you see below.
When Marnie objected and said ‘forget it, I’ll cancel the ad and have my money back’, the magazine refused to refund her!!
I spoke to Marnie today and here’s what she said:
(NOTE TO INNER CIRCLE MEMBERS: You’ll find the very strong ad Marnie wanted to run – modelled on one she found in The Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit - in the Member’s Only ‘sealed section’ – login here and navigate to Getting New Clients – Beauty. You can download Marnie’s ad, and read up on some suggestions I made to Marnie to help her get around this lunacy. Here’s a hint; use the same ad as direct mail to intending brides, with a new pre-headline – “The Ad That Blush Bridal Magazine BANNED!”)
The more you get accustomed to ‘our’ style of emotional, effective direct-response marketing, the more you become a marketer of your business rather than simply a stylist or beauty therapist, the more you will encounter this kind of idiocy among certain sections of the media.
Big lesson: ignore these fools, take your advertising dollars where they will be effective.
Big prediction: this magazine will inevitably join the ranks of so many others who refuse to run advertising that attracts customers – in the tank. The advertisers clueless enough to accept the magazine’s stupid rules soon wake up that their money is down the toilet, pull their ads, and the magazine sinks like a stone.
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A post by Greg Milner The odd idea, a bit of prodding, a nudge here and there, a little fun, and the occasional dose of brutal reality. Greg is co-founder and CEO of Worldwide Salon Marketing, a writer, direct response marketing consultant, specialist marketing systems adviser and coach. He (sometimes) accepts private consulting clients. |
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